Duke  University  Libraries 

The  sick  and  th 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #918 


No.  47. 

THE  SICK  AND  THE  PHYSICIAN. 

Hi'    REV.    J.    C.    LONG,    01     V,\. 


Matthew  the  publican  had  just  left  his  office  to  follow 
Jesus,  and  to  testify  his  love  for  his  new  Master,-  he  made 
a  feast  for  him  and  his  disciples  in  his  own  house.  Many 
of  the  publican's  oldiAfa^s,  publicans  and  sinners,  c#ine 
in  and  partook  oJiB^^Bfc^P1*311  tne  company  was  dis- 
persed, the  Scrifye^^BHW^ffisoes^  who  were  ever  on  the 
alert  to  find  some  cause  01  complaint  against  Jesus ,  and 
who  had  watched  him  when  he  went  into  Matthew's  house, 
attacked  his  disciples  with  indignant  niurmurings,  saying, 
"  Why  do  ye  eat  with  publicans  and  sinners  V  .They 
thought,  or  pretended  to  think  that  it  was  a  great  crime  to 
eat  with  such  a  company.  But,  while  they  said  nothing 
to  him,  Jesus  knew  full  well  that  it  was  not  -the  disciples, 
but  himself,  who  was  the  object  of  their  hatred  and  whose 
conduct  had  given  them  offence;  he,  therefore,  undertook 
to,  answer  the  question  which  the  Pharisees  had  asked. 
Said  he,  The  whole  need  not  a  physician  j  but  they  that 
are  sick,  I  came  to  call  sinners,  and  not  the  righteous,  to 
repentance.     Luke  5  :  31-32. 

In  these  words  the  Divine  Teacher  probably  repeated  a 


proverb  which  was  in  common  use  among  the  people  ;  and 
his  accusers,  doubtless,  immediately  understood  its  appli- 
cation. He-  compared -himself  to  a  physician,  aud  the 
publicans  and  sinners  to  the  sick.  It  was  surely  not  ne  - 
cessarj  for  a  physician  to  apologize  for  being  with  the  sick. 
[t  was  his  duty  to  be  with  (hem — a  duty  so  imperative 
that  he  could  not  neglect  it  without  being  guilty  of  the 
gravest  offence,  and  acting  unworthily  of  his  calling.  At 
the  risk  of  his  own  life  the  physician  must  do  all  he  can 
to  save  the  life  of  others.  He  is  not  allowed  to  shrink 
from  any  disease,  however  loathsome,  fatal,  and  contagion-. 
He  cannot  avoid  tfie  pest  house  or  flee  from  the  ravages  of 
the  pestilence..  With  a  courage  rivaling  that  of  the  soldier 
in  the  battle  field  he  must  walk  amid  the  sick  and  the  dy- 
ing, the  first  to  heed  their  cry  for  help  and  never  leaving 
them  so  long  as  they  need  his  assistance.  His  sense  of 
duty  has  sometimes  shown  itself  stronger  than  the  im- 
pulses of  natural  affection,  and  he  has  ministered  to  the 
relfef  of  that  child  which  a  moUrar  had  left  to  die  alone. 
As  a  physician,  then,  where  could Jesus  be  but  with  the 
sick  ?  '  His  answer  must  have  satisfied  even  the  cavilling 
Pharisees. 

But,  he  said,  ci  the  whole  need  not  a  physician."  Did 
he  mean,  that,  in  the  sense  in-  which  he  was  a  physician, 
any  were  whole  "i  Such  could  not  have  been  his  meaning. 
He  must  have  constantly  had  in  mind  the  sorrowful  lan- 
guage of  Scripture,  there  k  none  rightedus,  no,  not  one — he 
must  have  been  painfully  sensible  of  the  mournful  fact 
that  the  earth  was  but  a  mighty  hospital  filled  with  sick 
and  only  sick.  His  meaning  seems  to  be  that  there  were 
some  sick,  whom  in  his  ministry  of  healing  he  must  regard 
as  well;  some  sinners  whom  in  his  ministry  of  cleansing 
he  was  to  regard  as  righteous;  some  lost  whom  in  his  min- 
istry of  redemption  he  was  to  regard  as  saved.  The 
inference  was  that  he  had  come  to  others  but  not  to  these 


Pharisees.  Hi*  language  calls  to  mind  that  of  the  Fore- 
runner to  the  Pha  bra  came  to  his  baptism,  O 
generation  of  vipers.  who  hath  warned  yo«  to  flee  from  the 

wrath  U")  come?  As  the  Dispensation  of  Repentance  was 
not  theirs,  so  now  they  had  no  part  in  the  Dispensation  of 
Reconciliation.  And  this)  truth  whieh  is  dimly  shadowed 
forth  in  the  reply  of  Jesus  to  his  accusers  is  elsewhere 
plainly  indicated  in  the  teachings  of  the  gospel.  There  is 
a  blessing  pronounced  upon  the  poor  in  spirit,  upon  the 
spiritual  mourner,  upon  the  heavy  laden  and  bowed  down 
with  the  oppressive  yoke  of  sin;  upon  ihose,  who.  con- 
scious of  thrir  sinfulness,  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness; but  upon  the  proud,  the  sinful  and  secure  in 
their  sins  there  is  no  blessing — only  a  curse.  Tfce  wrath 
of  (Jod  abideih  on  them. 

"  Thr  wholev  of  whom  we  are  speaking  are  si  £k,  indeed, 
but  have  no  idea  that-  they  are  so.  It  is  very  rarely  the 
ease  that  a  man  is  physically  sick  without  knowing  it. 
Home  symptoms  will  almost  certainly  betray  the  pre 
of  disease.  The  pulse  will  be  too  full  and  rapid,  or  too 
weak  and  slow;  the  eye  will  be  too  dim  and  languid,  or 
too  bright  and  restless  ;  there  will  be  a  general  weakness, 
or  actual  pain  will  give  the  man  assurance  that  he  is  not 
in  health.  I>ut  it  sometimes  happens  that  persons  are 
sick,  even  unto  death  when  they  think  themselves  either 
well  off  in  the  way  of  n-envery.  Tt  is  said  that  what  are 
thought  by  the  patients  to  be  mild  eases  of  yellow  fever 
are  usually  the  most  dangerous.  The  victim  feels  weak, 
but  not  sick;  comforts  himself  and  his  friends  with  the 
idea  that  he  will  be  out  to-morrow,  certainly,  the  next  day. 
But  the  fell  disease,  which  at  first. toyed  with  him  because 
there  was  no  hope  of  his  escape,  at  length  takes  hold  of 
him  in  earnest,  and  lie  withers  and  dies  in  an  hour.  It 
sometimes  happens,  too,  that  the  sick  man,  after  a  long  and 
painful  illness,  suddenly  finds  himself  free  from  pain  snd 


imagines  that  the  strength  of  the  disease  is  broken.  Alas, 
mortification  has  blunted  the  sense  of  feeling  and  the  work 
of  death  has  already  far  advance^  before  death  itself  has 
come.  -.  * 

But,  if  men  are  rarely  mistaken  about  their  bodily 
health,  they  are  frequently  spiritually  sick  without  having 
any  proper  apprehension  of  the  fact.  That  this  is  so  is 
evident  from  our  own  observation.  We  have  known  men 
of  wicked  and  profligate  character  who  claim  to  do  no  harm 
and  to  discharge  all  their  duties  to  their  fellow  men.  They 
are,  therefore,  as  they  think,  not  sinners.  We  know  not 
which  most  to  admire,  the  presumption  of  the  claim  or  the 
folly  of  the  inference  drawn  from  it.  As  if  any  man  ever 
did  discharge  all  his  duties  to  his  fellow  men,  or  as  if, 
while  there  is  a  God  above  us,  our  duties  to  our  fellow  men 
were  all  our  duties  !  These  are  probably  the  men  who  arc 
spoken  of,  and  condemned  by,  the  Apostle  Paul  as  being 
ignorant  of  God's  righteousness  and  going  about  to  estab- 
lish their  own  righteousness.  Or,  are  they  not  rather 
those  who  are  said  to  be  cursed  with  a  strong  delusion  so 
that  they  shall  believe  a  lie  ?  Or,  it  may  be  that  they  are 
those  who  are  spoken  of  in  God's  own  energetic  language 
as  past  feeling.  How  do  they  resemble  persons  in  whom 
mortification  has  taken  place,  and  who  are  already  given 
over  to  death !  It  sounds  almost  like  terrible  mockery 
when,  even  by  implication,  such  as  these  are  called  "the 
whole  that  need  not  a  physician  ;M  and,  yet.  such  is  the 
judgment  they  pronounce  upon  themselves. 

Resembling  these,  and,  perhaps,  more  to  be  pitied,  are 
those  who  are  conscious  that  they  are  sick,  but  know  no- 
thing of  the  desperate  state  of  their  malady.  Have  yon 
never  heard  the  wasted  consumptive  in  winter  sigh  for  the 
mild  air  and  sweet  flowers  of  spring,  and  talk  of  them  as 
if  they  should  surely  be  his  ? 


"Aye,  thou  art  for  the  grave;  thy  glances  shine 
Too  brightly  to  shine  long — another  spring 
Shall  deck  herself  for  men's  eyes,  not  for  thine — 
Sealed  in  the  sleep  that  knows  no  wakening." 

He  knew  not  that  his  disease  was  fatal,  incurable.  So 
there  are  persons  who  know  that  they  are  sinners  but  know 
not  what  it  is  to  be  sinners.  They  imagine  that  their 
prayers,  their  fastings,  and  their  alms,  can  relieve  them 
from  the  condemnation  of  sin.  or  that  the  prayers  of  a 
Christian  friend  or  the  rites  of  a  christian  church  can  com- 
mend them  to  the  divine  favor.  If  any  of  these  things 
had  been  sufficient  would  God  have  sent  his  own  Son  to 
heal  them?  But  believing  that  they  are  sufficient  what 
hope  is  there  that  these  poor  deluded  ones  will  call  for  the 
great  physician  ? 

The  sick,  of  whom  our  Saviour  spoke,  are  those  who  are 
truly  conscious  of  their  condition.  They  know  that  their 
sickness  must  terminate  fatally  unless  arrested;  and  know- 
ing, too,  that  they  cannot  arrest  it,  themselves,  they  are 
not  ashamed  to  call  in  a  physician.  Tassing  through  one 
of  the  Richmond  hospitals  filled  with  wounded  soldiers, 
at  the  farther  extremity' of  the  long  room  the  writer's  at- 
tention was  called  to  a  young  man  whose  right  arm  had 
been  taken  off  near  the  shoulder.  He  had  been  waiting- 
long  for  the  surgeon  to  come  and  dress  his  wound.  His 
fine  face  was  full  of  madness  )  but  hearing  '  footsteps  near 
him,  he  lifted  his  head  and  his  eyes  brightened  with  pleas- 
ing hope.  Addressing  his  visitor,  "  Sir,"  said  he,  "are 
you  a  doctor?  My  arm  has  been  amputated  some  days  and 
it  is  important  that  it  should  be  dressed. "  The  visitor 
was  not  a  doctor  j  and  the  poor  man,  resuming  his  attitude 
of  patient  sadness,  waited  all  night  for  a  physician.  From 
his  very  soul  he  felt  that  he  had  need  of  one.  And  so,  in 
the  spiritual  life,  there  are  men  who  know  that  they  are 


i) 

sick  unci  powerless,  and  who  inquire  anxiou:  !v.  ■'  Is  there 
no  balm  in  G ilead;  no  physician  there T'  These  are  they 
who  need  a  physician;  and  for  their  sake,  and  ours,  we 
thank  God  there  is  a  physician;  and  such  a  physician. 

1.  lie  is  a  kind. physician,  if  we  are  sick  and  send  for 
a  physician,  we  wish  to  know  something  of  his  disposition. 
We  do  hot  wish  him  to  be  cross  and  irritable.  Nor  do 
we  wish  him  to  be  cold  and  indifferent.  We  wish  him  to 
hear  with  our  complainings,  soothe  our  anxities,  and  be 
careful  for  our  comfort.  But,  if  it  is  desirable  for  our 
earthly  physicians  to  be  kind,  it  is  much  more  important 
that  we  should  be  assured  of  the  kindness  of  Jesus,  our 
spiritual  physician.  Our  sickness  arises  from  our  enmity 
to  him.  We  have  been  acting  contrary  to  his  wishes  and 
commands  all  our  lives.  If  we  were  not  convinced  of  his 
kindness  we  should  not  have  the  courage  to  go  to  him. 
But  we  may  be  perfectly  sure  of  his  kindness.  Tlis  whole 
ministry  was  one  continued  act  of  kindness.  He  healed 
thousands  and  he  was  never  known  to 'speak  one  word  of 
harshness  or  reproof  to  those  who  came  to  him.  The  man 
full  of  leprosy  says'to  him,  Lord,  if  thou  wilt,  thou  canst 
make  me  clean.  He  replies,  putting  forth  his  hand  and 
touching  him,  I  will:  Be  thou  clean.  And  immedi- 
diately  the  leprosy  was  cleansed.  He  says  to  a  woman  who 
comes  to  him,  Daughter,  be  of  good  comfort;  thy  faith  hast 
saved  thee.  Certainly  he  must  be  a  kind  physician,  who, 
when  censure  was  justly  deserved  in  every  case,  gave  it 
in  none;  but  spoke  only  words  of  loving  compassion.   # 

2.  He  is  a  condescending  physician.  Rich  and  poor 
alike  may  come  unto  him.  Once,  when  he  wm  going  up 
to  Jerusalem  surrounded  by  great  multitudes,  who  were 
hanging  with  breathless  interest  upon  his  words;  and 
$pre  soon  .to  shout  to  him  hosanna  in  the  highest,  there 
was  sitting  On  the  way  side  a  blind  beggar.  As  the  crowd 
marched  on.  this  beggar,  hearing  the  noise  of  the  multitude, 


asked  what  it  meant       They  told  him —    J,  .   zareth 

passeth  by;'-  He  immediately  cried  out,  0  Lord,  thou 
son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me.  They  rebuked  him  that 
he  should  hold  his  peace.;  but  he  still  cried  out.  0  Lord, 
thou  son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me.  When  Jesus  came 
up  he  stopped,  called  for  the  beggar,  and  healed  him.  He 
w.-i.-s  a  poor,  sick  man.  needing  a  physician  and  the  Physi- 
cian would  him  without  ministering  to  his  relief. 
But,  to  jftftce^the  matter  beyond  all  dispute^  Jesus,  himself 
hus  left  upon  record  the  promise.  Ifim  thai  comeih 
trie  I  will  in  ho  wise  cast  out. 

3.  U   i>  lithout  charge.     It  is  sad  to  think  how 

many  of  our  race  annually  perish  because  they  cannot  pay 
for  medical  attendance.  Physicians  too  often  rush  with 
haste  to  the  call  of  the  rich;  but -turn  with  indiffer- 
ence away  from  those  who  have  nothing  to  pay.  But  the 
richest  is  no  more  able  to  reward  .this  physician  than  the 
It  \<  his  own  boundless  love  that  prompts  him 
td  regard  either.  We  may  all  expect  a  welcome  even 
though  we  have  to  say: 


or 


Nothing  In  my  hand  I  br^g 
Simply  to  thy  cross  I  cling. 


"  Nothing  but  sin  have  I  to  give, 
Nothing  but  love  shall  I  rea 


4'.  11-  is  always  accessible.  Some  physicians  havo^  so 
large  a  practice  that  they  can  devote  but  a  little  time  to 
each  patient;  and  often  after  they  are  sent  for  it  is  hours 
before  they  can  come.  In  some  of  our  hospitals,  more 
than  a  hundred  sick  and  wounded  are  under  the  care  of  a 
single  Surgeon.  Some  of  them  must  necessarily  wait  A 
weary  time;  and  some,   perhaps,    die  before   their  turn 


comes  around.       But  this  physician  in  always  near;    you 
need  not  wait  for  luin.     He  is  ever  waiting  for  you. 

Behold  a  stranger  at  the  door, 
He  knocking  now,  has  knocked  before  : 
Has  waited  long — is  waiting  still  ; 
You  treat  no  other  friend  so  ill. 

0  lovely  attitude  !  he  stands 
With  melting  heart  and  bleeding  hands. 
0  matchless  kindness  !  and  he  shows 
That-matchless  kindness  to  his  foes. 

But  will  he  prove  a  friend  indeed  ? 
He  will— the  very  friend  you  need  ; 
The  Friend  of  sinners — yet,  tis  he 
With' garments  dyed  from  calvary.  - 

Kise,  touched  with  gratitude  divine 
Turn  out  his  enemy  and  thine, 
The  soul-destroying  monster,  sin, 
And  let  the  heavenly  stranger  in. 

Admit  him,  e'er  his  anger  burns 
His  feet  departed  ne'er  return. 
Admit  him,  or  the  hour's  at  hand 
You'll  at  his  door  rejected  stand. 


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